24 Comments

Also – I don’t know if you have on air experience, but I thought you handled yourself very well (especially if you have no broadcasting experience).

Not being a huge hockey fan, the Leafs have kind of lost me over the last 5 years. But I really like Brian Burke. Despite the Kessel trade, I have a lot of trust in Burke and I think I could really get behind this team in a year or two if Burke starts putting together a competitive team.

That was fantastic…..Burke is known to be an open book / free speaker but this was truly “unplugged”….congrats. Now that Burke has been on TSM, others will line-up at the chance! Beeston, Alex A, McCown, Wilson…bring ’em on.

Makes me sick when hes talking about how the team didn’t respond until the planet tickets were dolled out. Blake, Stajan, Mayers, Toskala. Absolute BUMS all of them. They should’ve been traded in October not January.

Wow…TSM extreme Kudos…I always love Burke’s interviews but this is definitely the best I’ve heard. I feel like the two of you were sitting at a pub sharing a pint and talking about the Leafs for fun. Truly a great job!

What I liked most was the banter in the first 15 minutes, good unveiled questions that you never hear in the MSM. I get the impression that Burke likes to be challenged, and responded well to pointed intelligent questions.

Constructive criticism, it was too long. Definitely tailed off in the back half, the bubble gum utopian questions were painful to listen to. The Berger scenario was a low point, took away some of the credibility you had built up with Brian.

AWESOME!! Not just saying that either, I thoroughly enjoyed that Jonas! My wife was looking at me funny the first couple minutes asking what the hell I was listening too and then after a few minutes I swear she was actually enjoying the discussion with me, and we’re talking about my wife being a person with zero interest in Hockey or sports. I thought your questions were great and my level of respect for Burke went up another few notches when he spoke so openly about so many things.
Thank-you so much for sharing this, I am going to spread this to me friends who would appreciate & enjoy this hopefully as much as I did. CHEERS MAN!!!

Jonas,
I listen to you on AM640, I try to read your blogs/interviews on their website, and I have to be honest – I don’t usually agree with you.

BUT (big letters for a big “but”)
This was a fantastic interview!!

I found it incredibly insightful, entertaining, and to a large degree it was very candid and because of that it felt very “real”, very forthright, both in terms of the questions asked and the answers Brian Burke gave. I would expect nothing less than brutal honesty from Burke, but even in terms of the open mic segment at the end – some of it was just great info that you don’t normally get to hear. Most startling of which was Burkie admitting that he finally went to Richard Pettie and said “I need help, I gotta move some bodies” because he hadn’t had the impact on the players that he had assumed he would.
I used to snicker when Brady and Watters would give you a hard time and not let you finish a sentence occasionally, but now after hearing this interview, I have a whole new respect for what you bring.